Army Commander, Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, has assured that the LTTE would not be allowed to regroup and the Security Forces would do its best to safeguard national security.

The Army Chief expressed concern over the present security situation in the North when he toured Kilinochchi on Monday where he took part in several welfare activities.

The Army Chief in his address further said the Security Forces have made immense sacrifice to establish peace in the North and East and in the country at large. However, certain external forces are trying to disrupt the peace by reviving the LTTE, he added.

“The recent security measures taken in the North are aimed at preventing any form of LTTE activities in the North and not to create any problems to the civilians. Therefore, the civilians should cooperate with the Security Forces and the police in preventing any form of subversive activities in the North,” the Army Commander said.
In his address to nearly 350 officers serving in the Kilinochchi District, he explained the attempts made by disruptive elements abroad to disrupt the peace in the country by creating various forms of obstacles in the international arena.
Lieutenant General Ratnayake also explained the livelihood and development programmes supported by the Army in the North.

The Army Commander handed over authorized documents to the owners of the private lands released by the Army in Kilinochchi. A significant number of civilians regained their lands, which were in the possession of the Army.
Meanwhile, the search operations have also been launched in the Eastern Province to nab the LTTE suspects wanted in connection with the shooting incident at Tharmapuram, Kilinochchi, two weeks ago and posters have come up in various places in the East giving the details of the suspects.
(AP)

This narrative is largely fictional. Best estimates based on available public information indicate the number of military personnel in the north remains extraordinarily high. Evidence from the military’s own publicity about its forces in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts reveals its deep involvement in civil affairs and administration, with the stated objective of“controlling and monitoring” the civilian population.

Adding up the numbers

The concerns around militarisation in Sri Lanka are not merely about numbers, yet the social and political consequences of the sheer number of boots on the ground are themselves disturbing. The government and military routinely deny that the post-war north is overly militarised and periodically claim troop numbers are on the decline. In advance of this month’s UNHRC meetings, senior government officials made a series of new claims in this regard.

Leaving aside the contradiction between the president’s figures and those of his senior civil servant, the one-third reduction in troops claimed by Weeratunga begins from an artificially low baseline figure. We know from defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapkasa himself that the total size of the army at the end of the war was 300,000 (with 450,000 total military personnel), not the 200,000 claimed by Weeratunga in his Geneva presentation. Additionally, in 2009 and afterward, almost two-thirds of troops were stationed in the north. On this basis, even accepting Weeratunga’s claim that the northern total has been reduced by a third since 2009, some 120,000 army personnel would still be stationed in the north. Considering that the population of the northern province is 1,058,762, this yields a density of one army member for every 8.7 civilians, an extremely high ratio considering that hostilities ended almost five years ago.

It is also worth noting that Weeratunga’s presentation refers only to army personnel and thus leaves out tens of thousands of troops with other services stationed in the north: at three large naval commands and allied naval detachments spread along the coast and islands, at air force camps and bases, and in special task-force and civil-defence force detachments. With these included, the ratio of all military and paramilitary personnel to civilians may well approach the 1:5 ratio previous studies have indicated. (This is even higher than the ratio of military personnel to civilians found today in Kashmir, at the height of the second war in Chechnya or the conflict in Northern Ireland, during the surge in Iraq, or even during the French occupation of Algeria.)

Repeated attempts to mislead the domestic and international community regarding the scale of the military presence in post-war northern Sri Lanka directly contradict the GoSL’s stated commitment to restore democracy and civil administration to the north.

Development as militarisation: the case of security forces in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu

Following the war, Sri Lanka’s northern province saw the establishment of Security Forces Headquarters (SFHQ) in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. A close analysis of the organisation, mission and activities of SFHQ Kilinochchi – drawing from on-site observations and interviews as well as the army’s own publicly available information – indicates the military has taken over civilian governance functions ranging from economic development and humanitarian assistance to maintaining law and order. Of particular concern is the elaborate and highly politicised architecture of surveillance and control woven into the military’s extensive development activities.

As in the case of other SFHQs, the Area of Responsibility (AoR) of SF-K does not correspond to long-established civilian administrative boundaries but includes a significant part of Mullaitivu district, while a part of Kilinochchi district that lies on the Jaffna peninsula is excluded. The AoR is divided among the three army divisions of SF-K as indicated in the map below.

The architecture to enable such “controlling and monitoring” is provided by a network of camps of varying sizes spread across the AoR. A number have recently been renamed “Civil Affairs Offices”, with a board outside prominently displaying the mobile numbers of three or four key personnel. These camps are first and foremost the eyes and ears of SF-K, also serving as launch pads for regular armed patrols, including on bicycles.

Integral to this architecture are other regimes of surveillance and control. Crisis Group interviews with residents in rural Kilinochchi indicate that many from the local community have been recruited as informers.While this leads to an atmosphere of suspicion and fear within communities, it is a central part of the military’s project of “controlling and monitoring” civilians. In a similar vein a hotel employee reported that they had been “instructed” to have CCTV cameras on site. CCTV cameras are conspicuous by their presence even in ordinary restaurants in Kilinochchi, yet again raising awkward questions as to how the government can have it both ways: on the one hand, declaring that peace has come to the north; on the other hand, exercising draconian control over nearly every facet of civilian life, including eating out.

Such ongoing work by the military runs counter to government assurances to members of the UNHRC that the army’s role in civilian affairs is being “phased out”. Instead, nearly five years after the war, military interference in civilian governance appears to be expanding rather than contracting. The SF-K website notes that the military oversee several civilian projects and departments, ranging from a housing scheme funded by the Indian government to the construction of nurses’ quarters at the Kilinochchi General Hospital and road construction by the Road Development Authority.

Concerns over the large military presence in the north are compounded by the government’s continuing efforts to mislead domestic and international audiences. Even accounting for an element of exaggeration concerning its own development footprint, there is no doubt that the military continues to exercise a high degree of control over all aspects of people’s lives in the north. Reconciliation and lasting peace are made harder as a result.

The Northern Majlisul Ulama (NMU), submitted a petition and pleaded with the Indian High Commission in Colombo, to ensure that Muslims are treated in a manner similar to the Tamils in the process of resettling the internally displaced persons.

It was alleged that 56% of the construction work on houses for the displaced Tamils had been completed, while the percentage of similar work completed for the displaced Muslims remained stagnant at 15%.

The funds allocated by the Indian Government, are reportedly disbursed through the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society.The NMU called at the Indian Mission and submitted the petition to the First Secretary of the Indian High Commission, Justin Mohan, yesterday. The petition cites the crisis faced by the Muslims in the resettlement process in the North. The Leader of NMU, Moulavi S.H. Thahir, explained, “We were severely displaced during the war and the Indian Government stepped into assist us. Initially, the Muslims and Hindus were treated alike, but thereafter, the houses of the Hindus were completed, but the houses allotted to the Muslims remained incomplete.”

He also said that when they had questioned the authorities concerned, they had responded by claiming that, there were insufficient funds to complete the project. Moulavi M.F.M. Farook, also elucidated that the project was to be conducted in three phases in Jaffna, Kilinochi, Vavuniya, Mannar and Puttalam, and only 15% of the work pertaining to the construction of the houses had been complete.

Sri Lanka’s major Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) claimed that the residents of a village in Kilinochchi district had protested the moves to take over their land to establish an Army base in Pallai.

TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said that the Army had planned to take over 36 acres of private land from Iyakkachchi of Pallai in Kilinochchi district to establish the base of the Army’s 552 brigade.

The MP said that the residents of the village have protested the moves to take over the land.

He further said that the Army had held a discussion with the villagers regarding taking over the land on March 04. Army has offered compensation for the land but the MP says that the people are not willing to offer their traditional land to the government.